Radiocarbon and Oxidizable Carbon Ratio Dates From the Camp Joy Mound (41UR144) in Northeast Texas

Cite this Record Perttula, Timothy K.; Turner, Mike; and Nelson, Bo (1997) "Radiocarbon and Oxidizable Carbon Ratio Dates From the Camp Joy Mound (41UR144) in Northeast Texas," Index of Texas Archaeology: Open Access Gray Literature from the Lone Star State: Vol. 1997, Article 27. https://doi.org/10.21112/.ita.1997.1.21 ISSN: 2475-9333 Available at: https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/ita/vol1997/iss1/27


Radiocarbon and Oxidizable Carbon Ratio Dates From the Camp Joy Mound Radiocarbon and Oxidizable Carbon Ratio Dates From the Camp Joy Mound (41UR144) in Northeast Texas (41UR144) in Northeast Texas Creative Commons License Creative Commons License
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INTRODUCTION
The Camp Joy Mound ( 41 UR 144) is a looted Caddo mound on property owned by the U.S. Anny Corps of Engineers, Fort Worth District, at Lake o' the Pines (Turner 1993;Perttula et al. 1996).
Although only a small number of artifacts have been found in the mound depositsprincipally a few brushed sherds -it appears to be a Late Caddoan period construction with two mound platforms, separated by extensive charcoal lenses from one (or more) burned Caddoan struc-ture exposed in a larger looters trench. To ascertain the age of the burned Caddoan structure that stood on the main mound platform, we obtained two charcoal samples and two oxid.izable carbon ratio (OCR) samples (see Frink 1994 for information on the OCR procedure for dating archeological features) of sediments from the charcoal lens in our freshly cleaned profile of the trench cutting across the mound (Turner 1993 : Figure 4).

Provenience and Results
The charcoal samples were collected from about 60-70 cm below surface from two sides of the large looters trench. The northern profile sample (Sample #3) was collected where the top mound and the underlying platform mound are conjoined, whereas the eastern profile sample (Sample #2) was near the base of the top mound, about 10 cm above Sample #3. The calibrated radiocarbon dates are AD. 1495 -1605 (0.83 probability; Beta-84435, northern side of profile trench sample #3) and AD. 1515 -1592 (0.42 probability) and A.D. 1621 -1675 (0.39 probability; 10 Beta-84436, eastern side of profile trench sample #2).
The two OCR samples came from the southern trench profile (57 cm below surface, correlating in depth with radiocarbon sample #3) and the northern trench profile (70 cm below surface, correlating in depth with radiocarbon sample #2). The OCR date from the southern trench profile is 296 ± 8 years BP, rounded up to 300 ± 10 years BP (ACT #2218) or AD. 1650 ± 10, and the other OCR date is 420 ± 12 years BP (ACT #2219), rounded to A.D.
There is a strong correlation between the calibrated age estimates for the burned structure at the Camp Joy Mound from the radiocarbon dates and the two OCR dates.
The radiocarbon and OCR dates from ca. 57  The four dates provide good evidence that the Camp Joy Mound was in use in the l 6di and I "'f't centuries, a period of time when it has generally been agreed that Caddoan peoples in Northeast Texas outside the Red River Valley were no longer building and using earthen mounds ( cf . Thurmond 1990;Perttula 1992). Further investigations of the mound are planned to examine the profile in more detail, and collect additional radiocarbon and OCR samples for dating, particularly to evaluate the possibility that the charcoal lenses exposed in the looters trench are from two or more temporally sequent Titus phase structures, one slightly above the other.

Dating the Late Caddoan Period in Northeast Texas
The Late Caddoan period is thought to date from ca. A.O. 1350A.O. /1400A.O. -1680A.O. (Story 1990Perttula 1992 1450 to at least the early 1600s (Thurmond 1990;Perttula 1992: 102-107). The chronological span of the two phases is poorly developed because of few radiocarbon dates for the Late Caddoan period sequence (Thurmond 1990: As Table 1 shows, radiocarbon dates from assumed Whelan and Titus phase components overlap at the I-sigma range, lending some credence to Thurmond' s ( 1990:225) assertion that "the existing radiocarbon data base from the Cypress basin is unsuitable for use in an interpretation of the local culture history". Nevertheless, the most reasonable (i.e., with probability distributions at one sigma or greater than 0.76) of the recent calibrated I-sigma radiocarbon dates from  (Turner 1978) dates at I-sigma to cal AD 1536-1635. Two other Titus phase radiocarbon assays (from 41UR118 and 41UR129) range in date from cal AD 1425 -1470 (Table 1).

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It is interesting to note that the radiocarbon dates obtained in the 1960s from Whelan phase mound sites fall into two clusters: one spanning the period from cal AD 1382 -1520, and the other ranging in the period from cal AD 1444 -1668, the latter more or less the same span as the Camp Joy radiocarbon and OCR dates.
The latter cluster, with two dates from Harroun, and one from Sam Roberts (Table 1 ), is contemporaneous with those discussed above from Titus phase domestic and mound-building contexts, although the dates from Harroun have been rejected by Thurmond (1990:204) on the grounds of their ceramic associations.
At Sam Roberts, although there is a Titus phase component in one areas of the site and the calibrated date from the submound structure dates to the same period, Thurmond ( 1990: 144) argues that the mound was built during the preceding Whelan phase because "there is no clearly demonstrated instance of mound building in a Titus phase contexts". The two 161h and 171h century radiocarbon dates we have discussed from a burned structure in the Camp Joy Mound, along with the OCR dates of 300 ± 10 BP and 420 ± 12 BP from the same charcoal/daub lens, indicate the temporal context of the period of construction of the Sam Roberts mound should be reevaluated, as should the notion that Titus phase Caddoan groups did not build and/or use mounds.
Only a single radiocarbon date has been obtained from what is thought to be a Whelan phase domestic context, cal AD 1295 -1455 from the Rookery Ridge site ( 41 UR133) at the proposed Lake Gilmer (  (Nichols et al. 1995: Table 17-2). These are characteristic of Period 1 (ca. AD. 1350AD. -1450 or Whelan phase occupations in the Cypress Cluster (Perttula 1992:248 and Table A-2).

Summary
Radiocarbon and OCR dates from the Camp Joy Mound strongly suggest that the mound was built and used in Late Caddoan period times, with the final use of the mound (followed by its being capped with a small, second, earthen platform) occurring during the 16 th and 171tt centuries. Other Late Caddoan radiocarbon dates from Northeast Texas indicate that the Whelan phase dates from about AD. 13 50 -1450, and the following Titus phase -14 when the Camp Joy Mound was in usedating from ca. AD. 1450 -1680. The general concordance in results between the radiocarbon and OCR dates is quite encouraging, and we advocate the combined use of both methods of dating archeological features as a beneficial means for Caddoan archeologists to secure reliable and culturally relevant dates on prehistoric and historic Caddoan sites throughout the Caddoan archeological area. a